A link to the past With new polls showing his campaign dead in the water among California Republicans, Arizona Sen. John McCain has pulled out of a long-scheduled debate with Texas Gov. George Bush, set for Thursday in Los Angeles. McCain campaign officials tried desperately yesterday to put the best face on their withdrawal, even […]

by cactus Act Now! Now! Now! How nice to hear GW tell us that we have to act now! now! now! or we’re doomed. He gave us that same line in 2001 with respect to tax cuts. He got his tax cuts, the economy tanked, and our surplus died. He gave us the same line […]

Obama’s Rev. Jeremiah Wright looks pretty mainstream to me compared to Palin’s Pastor Muthee.

The historic importance of the Posse Comitatus prohibition was also well-analyzed here. As the recent militarization of St. Paul during the GOP Convention made abundantly clear, our actual police forces are already quite militarized. Still, what possible rationale is there for permanently deploying the U.S. Army inside the United States — under the command of […]

by Rdan The Crossed Pond has an interesting thought on how to ask real questions of the public, using a PEW poll as an example. Wortha look.

A taste of market news from Huffington Post.

by cactus An Immodest Proposal – End the Privileges of the Banks Yesterday I laid out what I think is a better, cheaper, faster approach to the bank bail-out. But that assumes a bail-out is necessary. However, I think a bail-out, any bail-out, is a bad idea. Consider the role of banks. Banks essentially store […]

The Cactus Bail-Out Plan: Cheaper, Better, Faster One of the goals of Paulson’s Bad Joke seems to be to deal with “counterparty risk.” That is, if Bank A can’t find a greater fool to buy its garbage, it will have trouble paying back Bank B. It would be cheaper to simply tell Bank B to […]

bruce is wrong i think about the drumbeat to fix entitlements as well. Ornstein yesterday in the Oregonian was saying that entitlements were the big problem facing the new administration,and today “Marketplace” (public radio) went out of its way to interview young people who said social security won’t be there for them.My guess is that […]